LandSafe, FNC and RELS acquisitions paying huge dividends

Thanks in large part to its growing property valuation business, CoreLogic saw a huge jump in revenue during the second quarter, the company reported Monday afternoon.

Over the last nine months, CoreLogic grew its property valuation business with the acquisitions of FNC, LandSafe Appraisal Services, and RELS.

CoreLogic closed the FNC acquisition in April, with the cost for the provider of real estate collateral information technology and solutions coming in at $400 million instead of the $475 million it was first estimated to cost.

And earlier this year, CoreLogic announced plans to acquire the remaining ownership interest in RELS, a provider of property valuation and appraisal services, from Wells Fargo.

Prior to the acquisition, RELS operated under the joint ownership of CoreLogic and Wells Fargo, with CoreLogic owning 50.1% of the company and Well Fargo owning the remaining 49.9%. Under the terms of the agreement, CoreLogic was to pay $65 million to Wells Fargo for its ownership interest in RELS.

While three companies weren’t cheap to acquire, with the total purchase price for LAS, RELS and FNC coming in at approximately $587 million, CoreLogic said Monday that it is seeing huge growth from its now-expanded property valuation business thanks to those three acquisitions.

According to CoreLogic, the company’s revenue jumped 30% in the second quarter, rising to $500 million from $386 million in the same time period last year.

And much of that growth came from the company’s Valuation Solutions Group, which CoreLogic launched the VSG in September 2015, with the primary focus of providing insights into the valuation of residential properties for underwriting, risk management and opportunity generation.

According to the company’s slide presentation for investors that accompanies its earnings release, the company’s Property Intelligence division, which includes the Valuation Solutions Group and its Property Information and Analytics business, saw its revenue grow from $161.1 million in the second quarter of 2015 to $276.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 – an increase of more than 71%.

For a point of reference, CoreLogic’s Valuation Solutions Group reported revenue of $34.3 million in its first quarter of existence (4Q 2015), and revenue of $113.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 – an increase of 231%.

And the company plans to grab even more valuation services market share moving forward, thanks to a “highly fragmented and challenged market space,” according to CoreLogic’s president and chief executive officer, Anand Nallathambi.

“CoreLogic delivered an outstanding second quarter and first-half operating performance. Revenues and profits grew at double-digit rates and we executed extremely well against our major operating imperatives including the VSG launch,” Nallathambi said.

“We believe the VSG affords us with a unique value catalyst and an opportunity for strategic growth and leadership in a highly fragmented and challenged market space,” Nallathambi continued. “We are entering the balance of 2016 with a clear pathway to accelerated growth as we deploy our unique data-driven solutions that, collectively, enable our current and future clients in the real estate ecosystem to more precisely underwrite and manage their risks and capitalize on opportunities as they arise.”

The report is also the company’s second straight quarter of solid growth driven by the property valuations business. In the first quarter, the company reported a 24% surge in profit.

Overall, CoreLogic reported that its second quarter net income from continuing operations totaled $40 million compared with $33 million in the same 2015 period and $28 million for the first quarter of 2016.

A report from Yahoo Finance stated that CoreLogic’s second quarter results bettered consensus estimates. Click here for a look at Yahoo Finance’s take on the company’s earnings.

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Ben Lane is the Editor for HousingWire. In this role, he helps set a leading pace for news coverage spanning the issues driving the U.S. housing economy and helps guide HousingWire's overall direction. Previously, he worked for TownSquareBuzz, a hyper-local news service. He is a graduate of University of North Texas.

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